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Auditing the Representation of Females Versus Males in Heat Adaptation Research
Kelly, Monica K. Smith, Ella Brown, Harry A. Jardine, William T. Convit, Lilia Bowe, Steven J. Condo, Dominique Guy, Joshua H. Burke, Louise Mary Periard, Julien
Kelly, Monica K.
Smith, Ella
Brown, Harry A.
Jardine, William T.
Convit, Lilia
Bowe, Steven J.
Condo, Dominique
Guy, Joshua H.
Burke, Louise Mary
Periard, Julien
Abstract
The aim of this audit was to quantify female representation in research on heat adaptation. Using a standardized audit tool, the PubMed database was searched for heat adaptation literature from inception to February 2023. Studies were included if they investigated heat adaptation among female and male adults (≥18–50 years) who were free from noncommunicable diseases, with heat adaptation the primary or secondary outcome of interest. The number and sex of participants, athletic caliber, menstrual status, research theme, journal impact factor, Altmetric score, Field-Weighted Citation Impact, and type of heat exposure were extracted. A total of 477 studies were identified in this audit, including 7,707 participants with ∼13% of these being female. Most studies investigated male-only cohorts (∼74%, n = 5,672 males), with ∼5% (n = 360 females) including female-only cohorts. Of the 126 studies that included females, only 10% provided some evidence of appropriate methodological control to account for ovarian hormone status, with no study meeting best-practice recommendations. Of the included female participants, 40% were able to be classified to an athletic caliber, with 67% of these being allocated to Tier 2 (i.e., trained/developmental) or below. Exercise heat acclimation was the dominant method of heat exposure (437 interventions), with 21 studies investigating sex differences in exercise heat acclimation interventions. We recommend that future research on heat adaptation in female participants use methodological approaches that consider the potential impact of sexual dimorphism on study outcomes to provide evidence-based guidelines for female athletes preparing for exercise or competition in hot conditions.
Keywords
acclimation, acclimatization, exercise performance, heat stress, menstrual status, thermoregulation, women
Date
2024
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
34
Issue
2
Page Range
111-121
Article Number
ACU Department
Centre for Exercise and Nutrition
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
File Access
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Notes
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Human Kinetics, Inc.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted noncommercial and commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the new use includes a link to the license, and any changes are indicated. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. This license does not cover any third-party material that may appear with permission in the article.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted noncommercial and commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the new use includes a link to the license, and any changes are indicated. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. This license does not cover any third-party material that may appear with permission in the article.